PAP MP says she too experiences “working mother’s guilt”

People’s Action Party Member of Parliament and Senior Parliamentary Secretary Sun Xueling says she feels guilty being a working mother who cannot always spend time with her children.

In a social media post on Monday, Ms Sun wrote that she too experiences “working mother’s guilt” for not having planned full days with her children.

She wrote: “I jolted awake at 4.30 am this morning with one thought in my mind: that my kids’ childcare was closed from today till the end of the year and I have nothing planned for the kids starting today. Nothing.”

Explaining that she had not thought about it, she said the guilt was deep in her consciousness and manifested at 4.30 am to scare her awake.

Ms Sun is an MP for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC and Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of National Development.

“The kids will be stuck at home watching TV the whole day with the helper while I go to work. I have three meetings in the day followed by five hours I will spend this evening in Punggol. I will not have time for them,” she wrote.

Frantically scrolling to find a suitable activity for her children, she added: “I only stopped when I found an outdoor playground near where I will have a meeting in the west this morning.

“Thank you, NParks! The kids can play there while I have my meeting. And then I can drop them at home during lunch while I go to the office.”

She added: “Why do we do this to ourselves? Does it really matter to the kids — one more playground adventure?”

After all her musing, Ms Sun added an update at the end of her post. She wrote: “Update at 7.30am: kids have just woken up. They say they want to stay at home and draw.” /TISG